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The weather was still gorgeous but we didn’t want to miss going inside the Milwaukee Art Museum . With the sun shining, making the lake a shimmering blue and the trees a shimmering green, the museum was all the more spectacular, a soaring white skeleton of a building with lots of glass, including a cavernous great hall entry and long white curving halls that feel like magic tunnels. Every which way, the building dazzles, offering selective views of the water and greenery outside. I forgot how interesting the art collection is too, although the architecture is the main attraction. We enjoyed the folk art, the modern homewares design, a special exhibition on the work of the late 19th century French artist Jules Cheret, “father of the Modern poster” whose work advertised the Folies Bergere among other things. (One of my favorite posters depicts a performer catching cannon balls shot from a cannon in his bare hands.) The museum café food looked good but we were still stuffed from our complimentary breakfast with omelet at our hotel, The County Claire so we just had coffee/ice tea on the cafe’s patio overlooking the lake.

We returned to the Third Ward to quickly visit ModGen, a fun plant and home goods store, then walked along the Riverwalk past cool loft apartments in old brick industrial buildings, with boats parked in the water out front. The Bronze Fonz, a statue of Fonzie from the TV show Happy Days was smaller than I remembered. (But perhaps fitting: I met the Fonz, aka Henry Winkler, decades ago in a Montana grocery store oddly, and he’s a small guy.)

Several tour boats set off from the river and looked like fun, less populated than the Chicago boats. At the famous Usingers sausage store we found a great old interior with old murals and marble counters but no grilled brats to eat but a kind butcher recommended one of several restaurants across the street, Buck Bradley’s Saloon (Not the next door Milwaukee Brat house, surprisingly), where we got a delicious grilled brat heaped with sauerkraut and grilled onions.

(More for you, my reader Dana 🤗 and any others…)

This is trip #3 here since July 4, thanks to my sister Jill who lives in this lovely swath of SW Michigan along Lake Michigan. Having spent last week about 4 hours north along the lake in NW Michigan, I notice differences between the two. Here it feels more like a weekend place, with the early August weekdays relatively quiet/fewer tourists and a lot of shops/restaurants closed early in the week. And here the air is warmer, less crisp, and the water is warmer too (although that may be due to this week’s heat).

That said, as always we like being in places like this during off hours. We still couldn’t get an outdoor picnic table at the popular dog-friendly Haymarket brewery north of Bridgman but happily sat in Adirondack chairs around a fire pit eating good thin crust margarita pizza and watching frolicking, corn hole -playing kids and families.

Midday we had the Warren Dunes trails to ourselves, perhaps because it was sweltering, nearing 90 degrees. We started at the trail head east of Floral Lane, south of Bridgman and did a well-marked loop that led through the woods to the steamy dunes (with glorious lake views) and back into the shady woods (amen). The trail was largely flat but there were a few steep dune climbs. At the end of the hike, we looked like we’d hung out in a sweat lodge and my sneakers had accumulated enough sand to form a tiny dune.

As expected, I loved Three Oaks – a small inland village with a good real-to-gentrified ratio — interesting sophisticated shops and restaurants plus old no frills businesses, pretty lanes with small wood houses and colorful gardens, plus the occasional 🌈 gay rights flag and contemporary architectural touches.

Lunch was excellent at Viola Diner (hearty tuna sandwich on multi-grain; steak salad, iced coffee with coffee ice cubes, last seen in Japan). The server brought a water bowl out for Millie, who lounged in the shade beside our outdoor table.

Drier’s is an atmospheric German butcher shop owned by the same family since 1913. The owner kindly offered me a sample of homemade bologna (yum, reminded me of the homemade bologna near the garden of Eden in central Kansas) and we bought a hearty dog bone for Millie.

I also was impressed by the contemporary clothes, shoes and home goods at Goods and Heroes. Some stores (on a Wednesday) were closed so we hope to return tomorrow during the farmers market. The whiskey distillery and nearby Anchor theatre looked interesting. We took pretty rural two-lane backroads north to Sawyer, lined with cornfields and farmhouses and the occasional fancy contemporary house set far back from the road.

Here’s my flowchart of what’s open when In this area:

Open Tuesday:
⁃ houndstooth restaurant, Benton harbor
⁃ Haymarket brewery/taproom/pizza, Bridgman

Open wed
⁃ Flagship specialty foods (fish!), Lakeside, 11-5
⁃ Collectorztown, Three Oaks
⁃ Goods and heroes, design store, Three Oaks 12 pm
⁃ Grand mere inn fish, dinner, stevensville
⁃
Open Thursday:
Alaplash, design store, Three Oaks
⁃ friolichs, store, bakery, cafe, Three Oaks
⁃ Patellies pizza, Three Oaks, 3 pm
⁃ Sojourn home goods, Sawyer, 12 pm

Open Friday:
⁃ granor farm Near Three Oaks, 9-3
⁃ Alchemy antiques, Sawyer, 12 pm
⁃ Judith racht gallery, Sawyer, 11 am